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Landlords: How Long Before You Lower Asking Rent?
invite response
2010 Apr 6, 1:04pm 27,491 views 55 comments
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Guess my landlord wasn't blessed with tenant-reading skills for my next-door neighbor had one too many demands from roofing problems in Santa Clara to the ever-increasing rent. Poor guy still puts up with said neighbor, for some reason, that he called some roofing contractor http://www.workforceroofing.com/roofing-services.html. Why, roofing repairs and whatnot in Los Gatos, Santa Clara and our other surrounding areas are anything but cheap.
Vicente
2010 Apr 20, 3:23am
I agree about raising rents. I'm fed up with my current landlord. She SEEMED OK for the first few years. But starting 3rd year it became "well I need to raise rent $100/month due to rising costs". What rising costs? I did nearly every repair and just billed her for the parts. I used quality parts instead of cheap junk and she got a better outcome. If there is a need for outside service I'm the one sitting around the house all day seeing that they have access they need and do the job right. Yet she tries to complain I spend too much even when I'm the one on the ladder saving her money. "Sure I suppose you need to replace those 20-year-old smoke detectors....but do you really need to replace ALL of them, maybe you don't need to replace the one in the hallway it hardly matters...." Yeah a $20-$30 smoke detector is a good place to save money isn't it? What do I get for it? Oh I'll only increase by $50/month instead of $100 if you guys are really thinking about moving...
She hasn't been paying attention I think to rental market. She only lives one street over and hasn't stopped by the house in 2 years. The house next door has been sitting empty since December with a FOR RENT sign hanging out front. I got furlough pay cut, and can't see her justification for wanting rent increase larger than alleged "inflation". I'm actively shopping for better digs, will give her the contractually agreed minimum notice before moving out.
junkmail
2010 Apr 20, 4:14am
Dropped the rent on my tenants $250 per month on both houses.
I'm not hurting for the money.
I like them.
I don't want to have to roll the dice again and 2 dark months can really screw me (take 10 months to recover in the discounted rent).
Rent =$3000
Discount = $250
Being a hard-head = Tenants leave (approx) 2 months lost rent = $6000
Will take 24 months to recoup the dark months (based on the $250)
I can always raise the rent again when (if) things pick up.
I find a lot of people become landlords by mistake, or at least unintentional. There are also those who are investors and just look at it as P/E ratio. I think the best landlords are like business managers. You can organise, plan and have a huge human resources department.
Your rental homes are not the source of income. It's the people in them.
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For funzies, I've been monitoring quite a few homes in my area to see if they rent out. Many of these places have sat for 3-4 or more months without any takers. Landlord doesn't lower the asking rent (who knows what he/she may decide to 'settle' on).
A lot of these places are in the $2800-$3500 type range, and I estimate the asking rents to be about $500 over market. So quite a bit raw dollar wise, not a terrible amount percentage wise.
The funny thing is when an identical unit (generally a townhouse or a condo) will go up and the other landlord will ask for $100 less a month. One guy $3k, new guy $2900. Funny thing for the new guy is he may not realize the 3k guy has been sitting for 3-4 months at least, so it's doubtful that $100 discount will do the trick.
If you were in their position, how long would you let it sit before lowering the asking rent?